As expected, the Safeway Classic, Portland's LPGA Tour golf tournament, will move to Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in North Plains in 2009, tournament organizers announced Friday.
Tournament Golf Foundation, the non-profit organization that runs the tournament, will stage the tournament on Pumpkin Ridge's Ghost Creek course, the public side of the 36-hole facility, which includes the private Witch Hollow. The tournament and Pumpkin Ridge signed a three-year contract.
TGF (which recently shortened its name from Tournament Golf Foundation Inc., or TGFI), was happy with Columbia Edgewater Country Club, its home for the past 18 years and site of the tournament 26 times.
However, as interest in women's golf and the tournament continued to grow, leading to a record attendance of 68,900 last year, TGF wanted to find a facility that would allow a bigger pro-am and more corporate tents to raise more money for its charities. Last year's tournament donated $1.1 million to local charities.
Pumpkin Ridge has been host to a slew of United States Golf Association events, including the 1996 U.S. Amateur won by Tiger Woods and two U.S. Women's Opens.
"It's really tough to make a change from a place like Columbia Edgewater, where we've been so comfortable for so long," said Rob Neal, executive director of TGF. "But going to a place like Pumpkin Ridge, where they've run plenty of big events, if comforting."
The Safeway Classic, which started in 1972 and is the longest running regular event on the LPGA Tour, will be played one final time at Columbia Edgewater on Aug. 22-24. Lorena Ochoa won last year's tournament.